Bernie Ecclestone has admitted the financial crisis which has struck Formula 1 recently, leading to the loss of two teams, is probably his fault.
The 84-year-old says some bad deals have been made, which seemed good at the time, but have likely led to the problems F1 is experiencing at the moment with too much money going to a select few teams.
“The problem is there is too much money probably being distributed badly – probably my fault. But like lots of agreements people make, they seemed a good idea at the time,” he explained.
If the problem is to be resolved, the leading teams – which receive a larger share of the prize money – need to make some sacrifices according to Ecclestone.
“We have to decide the best way to sort this whole thing out,” he added. “Frankly, I know what’s wrong but don’t know how to fix it.
“No one is prepared to do anything about it because they can’t. The regulations have tied us up. If we were in a position where we could help these teams in trouble, we would do it. But we are not allowed to. They say if you give this team $10,000, everyone has to have $10,000. The trouble with lots of regulations and lots of contracts is that we don’t think long-term.
“It makes no difference to me how the money is shared out. If they sat down here with me now and said they want to share out all of the money we get in a different way, I would say, ‘Good, give me the bit of paper’.
“I think the situation is such that if enough people want it resolved, we can resolve it. It’s a case of the people that are involved in the sport will have to want to look after the sport and prepared to make some sacrifices.”
The Britain’s hands are tied however as he must negotiate in order to satisfy the sport’s owner, CVC Capital Partners, rather than for the good of the sport.
“If the company belonged to me I would have done things in a different way because it would have been my money I was dealing with. I work for people who are in the business to make money.
“I would tear all the contracts up. Take all the money, pay all the teams’ debts that should be paid so people haven’t suffered because of Formula One. And people haven’t got credit for Formula One. And then say this is what you are going to get next year, this is the amount of money we’ve got and this is what is going to happen from now on in. It’s percentages.
“We have to open the eyes of those people in a position to turn the lights on and off to what they need to do because I wouldn’t want to be in a position where I was too strong and Formula One disappears and someone says it is because of you it disappeared.”
